Relational Entitlement, Early Recollections of Parental Care, and Attachment Orientation

Sense of Relational Entitlement and Couple Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Couple Negotiation Tactics

Previous research shows a link between the sense of relational entitlement and various couple outcomes. However, the mechanisms linking these variables are less discussed. With this study, the aim was to test the associations between individuals' excessive and restricted sense of relational entitlement and their levels of couple satisfaction and conflict. In addition, it was tested whether the use of different negotiation tactics (cooperative and competitive) mediated the links. Six hundred and eighty-seven adults (55.2% women) participated in this study. Mediation analyses showed that a restricted sense of relational entitlement is associated with couple satisfaction and conflict through higher competitive negotiation use. Additionally, an excessive sense of relational entitlement is linked with couple satisfaction and conflict through lower cooperative negotiation use. This study has important implications for couples therapy addressing satisfaction issues, showing why and when educating couple interactions, especially those regarding negotiation, can improve relational functioning. Additionally, one's relational well-being is strongly related to one's mental health, and the applicability of the findings can be extended to all outcomes of the therapeutic process.

An Investigation of Helicopter Parenting and Interpersonal Conflict in a Competitive College Climate

With declining birth rates, and decreasing family sizes being witnessed around the world, helicopter parenting-characterized by high warmth, high control, and low empowerment-is becoming increasingly common among parents. Parenting styles exert long-term effects on individuals' cognition and behavior, not only in early childhood, but also in adulthood: therefore, within this context, this study explored the underlying influence mechanism of helicopter parenting style on interpersonal conflict, through a survey of 505 Chinese college students. Using multiwave data, our analysis uncovered the mediating roles of psychological entitlement and fear of missing out, as well as the moderating role of a competitive climate. In particular, we found that helicopter parenting enhances interpersonal conflict among college students, by strengthening psychological entitlement and fear of missing out. In addition, the indirect effect of fear of missing out is stronger than that of psychological entitlement. We also found that a competitive climate positively moderates the indirect effect of helicopter parenting on interpersonal conflict among college students through psychological entitlement and fear of missing out, indicating that the negative effects of helicopter parenting are more pronounced in a high competitive climate. These results provide a novel theoretical account of how early parenting styles affect an adult's cognition and behavior. Practically, these results suggest that parents should limit the use of helicopter parenting, and that, while loving and caring for their child, they should allow their child appropriate autonomy. On the other hand, children should strive for positive self-improvement and harmonious peer relationships, to alleviate the negative influence of helicopter parenting.

Parental bonding in retrospect and adult attachment style: A comparative study between Spanish, Italian and Japanese cultures

Attachment is an innate human relational mechanism that develops progressively from early childhood, influences individuals' representations and behaviors, shapes relationships, and affects the social and cultural environment. Parental bonding refers to the ability of parents to be emotionally and behaviorally available to the child during infancy. Attachment style refers to the individual's relational attitude in close relationships that influences adult love, bonding, handling relationships, and social exploration. The role of intergenerational, cultural and developmental factors influencing the relationship between the attachment style in adulthood and the parental bonding style recalled during childhood has been debated. This study explores the relationships between recalled parental bonding, adult attachment style, and cultural background in a sample of Spanish, Italian, and Japanese adults using a cross-sectional and cross-cultural design. For this purpose, the validated versions of the Experience in Close Relationship Scale and the Parental Bonding Instrument were administered to a non-clinical population of three hundred and five participants in the three countries. Results show that the most frequent adult attachment style is the secure style, followed by the dismissing-avoidant, the preoccupied, and the fearful-avoidant style. The dismissing-avoidant style was the most frequent insecure attachment style in the Japanese sample whereas the preoccupied style was the most frequent insecure attachment style in the Italians and Spaniards. Japanese are more anchored to the memory of maternal and paternal overprotection, which is related to more avoidance in actual close relationships. Spaniard's current relationships are mildly independent of recalled parental bonding, showing an association between lower current avoidance to primary parental care. In the Italian sample, there is no significant relationship between current adult close relationships and recalled parental bonding. These results suggest that different cultural models influence adult attachment representations differently, in terms of the weight placed on attachment-related avoidance, attachment-related anxiety, care, and overprotection in infant and adult relationships.

Attachment, Sense of Entitlement in Romantic Relationships, and Sexual Revictimization Among Adult CSA Survivors

Insecure attachment orientations are disproportionately frequent in child sexual abuse (CSA) survivors and have been found to mediate some of the effects of CSA on adult interpersonal and romantic difficulties, including sexual revictimization (SR). A sense of relational entitlement (SRE) has received growing attention in psychological discourse and research in recent years. It reflects both adaptive (assertive) and pathological (restricted or inflated) attitudes to the assertion of needs and rights and has not been studied in adult CSA survivors. The purpose of this study was to examine associations between CSA, attachment orientations, SR, and SRE. Sixty-seven Israeli women aged 25 ± 3.95 years (30 adult CSA survivors and 37 healthy female controls with no history of CSA) completed a demographic questionnaire and self-reported measures of adult attachment orientations, sense of entitlement in romantic relationships, and adult SR. CSA survivors reported greater attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance, more restricted SRE, and higher revictimization rates than control women. No difference was found between the groups in inflated SRE. In the CSA but not the control group, anxious and avoidant attachment orientations were significantly and negatively associated with assertive SRE. Insecure (anxious and avoidant) attachment fully mediated the association between CSA and restricted SRE. Our findings suggest that the interplay between insecure attachment and CSA is related to a sense of impaired assertive entitlement and elevated restricted entitlement in adult CSA survivors. This entitlement pattern can be destructive to survivors' romantic relationships and should be addressed in therapy.

Pathological Narcissism and Emotional Responses to Rejection: The Impact of Adult Attachment

Background: Aspects of pathological narcissism, such as grandiosity, vulnerability and entitlement, tend be enacted in therapeutic settings, negatively influencing outcome and alliance between the clients and therapist. This research took an experimental approach to understanding the interplay between the emotional reactions of individuals with a pathological narcissistic presentation, and adult attachment style. We predicted that participants reporting narcissistic vulnerability would report greater insecurity in attachment (fearful and preoccupied styles), greater trait emotional reactivity, and also experience more intense and negative responses to simulated rejection

Methods: 269 participants (75.84% female, median age = 21) completed baseline and rejection trials of a virtual ball-tossing game, following the assessment of grandiose and vulnerable pathological narcissism, entitlement, adult attachment, trait emotional reactivity (measured prior to the rejection) and in-situ affective response (measured both before and after the rejection). Change in affect from baseline was calculated to capture affective responses to the manipulation.

Results: Vulnerable narcissism was positively associated with both fearful and preoccupied attachment, and negatively associated with secure and dismissive attachment, whilst grandiose narcissism was significantly related to preoccupied attachment only. Multiple hierarchical regression analyses showed vulnerable narcissism predicted both (1) more negative trait emotional reactivity and (2) a significant increase in negative affect following the rejection trial. Grandiose narcissism was associated with (1) higher positive trait emotional reactivity, and (2) significant reductions in positive affect following rejection.

Conclusion: Results indicated that those high in pathological narcissistic vulnerability reported greater insecurity in attachment, negative trait emotional reactivity and experienced a more negative and intense emotional reaction to rejection. Grandiose narcissism was related to a more deactivated pattern of emotional reactivity, and less positive (rather than more negative) emotional reactions. Findings have important implications for therapy, particularly regarding communication of emotions for individuals high in vulnerable and grandiose narcissism.

Anxious Attachment Mediates the Associations Between Early Recollections of Mother's Own Parental Bonding and Mother-Infant Bonding: A 2-Month Path Analysis Model

Parental bonding (recollection of own parents' parenting), adult attachment, and mother-infant bonding are all closely related yet distinct concepts of the parent-child relationship, sometimes used interchangeably in the literature. This study aimed to examine the associations between these concepts in a longitudinal path analysis design. A total of 262 postpartum women who gave birth at the maternity ward of a large tertiary health center in Israel completed a demographic questionnaire, the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR), the Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) at 1-4 days postpartum, and the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ) at 2 months postpartum. Parental care factor (PBI) was found to be associated with mother-infant bonding (PBQ), directly and indirectly through insecure anxious attachment (ECR). Denial of autonomy factor (PBI) was found to be associated with mother-infant bonding (PBQ) only through insecure anxious attachment (ECR). Encouragement of behavioral freedom factor (PBI) was found to be associated with mother-infant bonding (PBQ) in a simple correlation but not in the complete model. The results highlight the intergenerational aspects of parenting and suggest that early childhood interventions with parents may have a long-term impact on child-rearing though generations, and by that on children's development.

The Role of Relational Entitlement, Self-Disclosure and Perceived Partner Responsiveness in Predicting Couple Satisfaction: A Daily-Diary Study

Recent research has investigated how the sense of relational entitlement (SRE, the extent to which a person expects that his/her needs and wishes will be fulfilled by the romantic partner) diminishes couple satisfaction, but little is known about how SRE affects the daily quality of close, romantic relationships. Moreover, the evidence on how SRE interacts with other features of a satisfying relationship (such as the variables of the interpersonal process model of relationships-self-disclosure, perceived partner disclosure, and perceived partner responsiveness) is scarce. Using an electronic daily diary, we examined 99 couples (198 participants) for 7 days, with two daily measurements for each partner. We used a dyadic double intercept multilevel model, which simultaneously computes effects for men and women. We tested a model where one partner's daily couple satisfaction was predicted by their overall levels of SRE (excessive, restricted, and assertive) and by their daily and overall levels of self-disclosure, perceived partner self-disclosure, and perceived partner responsiveness. The model also included person-level interactions and cross-level interactions between the SRE types and variables of the interpersonal process model of relationships for each gender. The analysis indicated that person-level excessive SRE lowers couple satisfaction. Also, day and person-level perceived partner responsiveness and person-level self-disclosure are related to couple satisfaction, but the latter association is significant only for men. Finally, we found some significant person-level interactions that account for changes in couple satisfaction. For men, the links between couple satisfaction, excessive and restricted SRE were moderated by self-disclosure and perceived partner responsiveness, respectively, perceived partner self-disclosure and perceived partner responsiveness. For women, the associations between couple satisfaction, restricted and assertive SRE were moderated by self-disclosure, respectively, perceived partner self-disclosure. This study advances our understanding of the general implications of SRE in the dynamics of couple relationships. More specifically, it shows how SRE interacts with other couple-specific variables in shaping day-to-day couple satisfaction. The theoretical and clinical implications for couple therapy are discussed.